US stepping up deportations of Somali refugees with criminal backgrounds

09/23/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Were some of Rep. Keith Ellison’s constituents doing the killing in Kenya on Saturday?

Rep. Keith Ellison swearing in on the Koran as the first Muslim Member of the House of Representatives in 2007. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

This article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune went unnoticed over the weekend (at least by me!) when the issue of Somalis and Minnesota took center stage in faraway Kenya as Somali terrorists slaughtered dozens of innocent shoppers (see our report here).

We’ve written about Somali deportations previously and noted that the US Supreme Court has already ruled that it is legal to send immigrants back to countries in chaos if they break American laws. But, the ‘human rights gang’ is always agitating against the idea as is the case now in this report.

From the Star Tribune (Minnesota Somalis make up most of the list of those to be sent back):

The federal government is engaging in an aggressive effort to deport Somali immigrants who run afoul of U.S. law, after refraining for years from shipping people back to a country wracked by civil war and lacking a functioning government.

The policy change affects more than 3,100 Somali nationals who have received final orders for removal from the United States since 2001, either because of violations of immigration law or criminal convictions. That includes 435 people who were ordered removed from the immigration court in Bloomington, representing 13 percent of all such Somali cases in the country’s 52 immigration courts.

Until recently, they had been allowed to remain in this country despite the removal orders, living in a legal limbo, wearing ankle bracelets or under requirements to check in periodically with authorities.

Now that’s changed.

Since 2012, 33 Somalis across the United States have been deported to Somalia, including 22 so far this year. Most have come from Minnesota, home to the nation’s largest Somali refugee community. Thirty Somalis remain in custody this month from the St. Paul region of the immigration service, faced with a pending or final deportation order.

Next the Tribune gives us a sob story about how these kids grew up here and don’t know Somalia, some don’t know the language. How about a sob story for the US and Minnesota taxpayers who raised these “kids”—housed, fed and educated them!

This is so backwards! The poor Somali “kids” could become “victims” in Somalia. What about their victims here?

The increased deportations have raised the thorny issue of whether it is proper to send offenders, many with admittedly lengthy criminal rap sheets, to an unstable country they don’t know and where many believe their presence will be tantamount to a death sentence.

What do you do with people who have no legal right to stay here, but nowhere safe to go?

“We still consider Somalia to be extremely unsafe,” said Deepinder Mayell, director of the Refugee and Immigrant Program for the Minneapolis-based Advocates for Human Rights. “Even affiliation with western countries could be a threat. It makes them stick out. …. They could become subject to increased scrutiny or targeted as a victim.”

Rep. Keith Ellison is worried that al-Shabaab will get these poor kids.

I think this morning Ellison has to be sweating until we find out if some of his constituents are actually among the al-Shabaab Islamic terrorists who did the slaughtering in the Kenya mall!

The Tribune story continues:

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, whose district includes a large segment of Minnesota’s Somali community, said he will be requesting a detailed briefing from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice on their guidelines for deportations to areas with potential safety concerns. Despite some gains in Somalia, he said he remains concerned about things such as recent asymmetrical attacks by the terrorist organization Al-Shabab.

“Asymmetrical attacks by the terrorist organization Al-Shabab!” Is that what happened in Kenya?

There is a lot in this article but I don’t have the time this morning, so please read the whole thing here. Lawyers are wondering why the feds have renewed their interest in deporting the Somali criminals. I would like to know that too!

Readers: I’m away from the computer this morning, so if anything interesting happens send me a note at our new address:

AnnRRW@yahoo.com

Al-Shabaab goes international with deadly mall attack in Kenya

09/22/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 23rd: There is so much coverage of this story I can’t keep up, but here is one from CNN about the fact that refugees living in the US were recruited for Jihad in Africa—this story is FIVE YEARS OLD! What takes the media so long to catch up?

Update: ABC is reporting that the attacks could have ramifications in the US since so many Somalis left the US to join the Jihadists over the last few years, but they cannot bring themselves to use the “r” word (refugee!) leaving the average readers scratching their heads and wondering how all these Somalis got to the US in the first place.

Update: See photo at Vlad Tepes here (warning! it is heartbreaking). If the link isn’t opening try Vlad’s home page (here).

Update: There is a report at PJ Media (thanks to all who sent this news) that some of the Somali terrorists are Americans—that would almost have to mean they are also “refugees” (or the children of refugees) resettled in Minnesota, or possibly another of the “preferred” locations for Somali resettlement.

And, I bet most Americans think this is ‘over there’ and has nothing to do with the US. Wrong! We have had (and may still have) the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab in Minnesota and possibly other “welcoming” cities where Somali “refugees” have been resettled.

We began following al-Shabaab (sometimes spelled al-Shabab) since its US Jihadi recruitment activities became known in 2008, here. For ambitious readers, the key words ‘missing Somali youths’ are found in our one-hundred-plus-post archive on the recruitment of mostly young men we raised and educated on the taxpayers’ dime. (I’ll bet there is no one place, other than RRW, for a complete history of the recruitment.)

Photo is from the Investigative Project on Terrorism

Al-Shabaab in 2009: “Beware we are coming!”

Here is a post I wrote in January 2009 where I reported that al-Shabaab spokesmen were caught on tape saying they want to re-establish the Islamic caliphate and eventually control the world. Why is it that we don’t take them at their word?

“Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, and from Japan to Russia. Beware, we are coming.”

[…..]

“Our objectives, by the grace of God, are to see the return of the Islamic Caliphate, the last of which was the Ottoman empire that collapsed in the 1920s. We want to bring that system back and govern the world with God’s law.

In March of 2009, I attended a shameful (even more shameful in retrospect then I viewed it at the time) hearing in the Senate Homeland Security Committee where Senators Lieberman and Collins visibly gave a sigh of relief to hear from US GOVERNMENT TERROR EXPERTS that al-Shabaab was all about defending their homeland from Ethiopian “invaders.”

The Senators were looking for a link to al-Qaeda, and if there wasn’t one they were happy. They didn’t get it then, and most people don’t get it now—Islamists do not have to be formally linked to have the same ideological goals! Of course, subsequently the link to al-Qaeda was definitively determined.

Kenyan mall slaughter

Update: Israeli forces rescuing hostages according to this report. Hat tip: Janet.

Yesterday, al-Shabaab, which most “experts” thought was on the run as the new Somalia government gained strength, has flexed its muscle outside of Somalia to show the world they aren’t done yet. An attack on Obama’s ancestral home is a signal to the world that they are still relevant, and that Obama has not made any peace with the Muslim world.

As of this writing, Sunday morning, CNN is reporting that 59 innocent Saturday shoppers were killed, 175 wounded and the Somali Islamic terrorists still hold 30 hostages in the most deadly attack in Kenya since the US embassy bombing in 1998.

[And, btw where is Drudge? When I started checking out the breaking news yesterday, I began with Drudge, as I usually do, and as of this minute, I’m not even seeing the terror attack mentioned there!]

Frankly I’m sick of these Somali Islamists and the issue of al-Shabaab recruiters operating in the US. Really! I’m sick of our naive view of Somalis and the goals of Islamists.

So please read our friend Jerry Gordon’s account of what happened. He isn’t tired of making the connection between the goals of Islam and refugees. And, folks, it isn’t just that you should fear your next mall shopping trip, the more important Jihad on-going now is the demographic Jihad (read al Hijra—the Islamic doctrine of Jihad by immigration)!

And, have a look at CNN explaining al-Shabaab to their readers. At least some mainstream outlet is doing it—5 years late—but better late then never (what a joke!).

How many Somalis have been resettled in the US?

More than 100,000 now and those are just the ones who came in through the State Department’s Refugee Program with the help of nine federal contractors***. See our now outdated post here.

But, if you are thinking we have maybe slowed the flow of new Somali refugees, forget it! Fiscal year 2013 ends in eight days.

As of August 31st we have resettled 6,679 additional Somalis this year alone! Go here.

Photo is from this 2010 story at The Investigative Project on Terrorism.

*** I often wonder if one day these “church” leaders will place their heads in their hands and ask themselves—‘God what have I done?’

Addendum: I should have linked this 2011 post (it is being heavily hit today) on why there are so many Somalis in Minnesota—thank Catholic Charities, World Relief and Lutheran Social Service and their sugar-daddy—-The US State Department.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota: doing well by doing good

09/21/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Frankly I was shocked to see the size of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota when Minnesota reader Debbie brought their financials to my attention after I posted how LSS was busy now helping to change the demographic make-up of St. Cloud, MN as they resettle Somalis to a city, I am told, is already over 20% Somali and where a controversy is underway about a large mosque/school complex the Somalis want in a residential neighborhood.

Mark Peterson, former President and CEO of Lutheran Social Service of MN was making $441,767 a year in salary and benefits doing God’s work, which included resettling tens of thousands of Somali Muslims to Minnesota!

Although he has left, former President and CEO, Mark Peterson of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota made a cool $441,767 reported in their most recently available Form 990. Imagine that—more than the President of the United States of America, and more than double what Members of Congress and US Senators make! What on earth was a man (doing God’s work!) taking a salary like that, primarily paid for by US and Minnesota taxpayers and contributions from the Lutheran flock?

Where are the picketing ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrators outside the offices of these fat cats? They aren’t even making the money the good old fashioned capitalist way, but are siphoning off tax payer dollars from hardworking Americans!

Imagine how many poor people could be helped on that salary?

And where is the ACLU screaming about the separation of church and state?

Interestingly, I have the Form 990 (Oct. 2010-Sept.2011) supplied by my reader (it is a Pdf) and the Form 990 (same year) available at Guidestar (here) and the one available at Guidestar contains a blank page or two where the large salaries of LSS employees are reported.

The Pdf version does list the salaries. The new CEO is Jodi Harpstead. She was the former Executive VP of LSS and she made $249,508 in salary and benefits as the second in command (that is more than the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court makes). Presumably she is now raking-in what Peterson did.

Readers, these salaries (at a state level!) are larger than some of the salaries we’ve reported for the nine major federal resettlement contractors. I think only the International Rescue Committee has salaries as large as these.

New CEO Jodi Harpstead. As second in command to Peterson she took home more than US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts makes!

In that year, LSS was an $89 million operation. $63.3 million came from ‘government fees and contracts,’ $1.2 million was from federated campaign (that’s where govt. employees donate to non-profits), and $5.2 million was ‘pass through revenue’ which I presume came down from the national Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and is federal taxpayer money. Only $7 million of their $89 million appears to come from private charity.

Salaries and wages for the organization totaled $40 million plus approximately another $10 million in benefits, their offices cost them $7 million and another $3 million went to travel expenses. How much does it cost to travel around Minnesota in a year?

If LSS of Minnesota had to rely on private charity, they would not exist as a political powerhouse! I’ll grant they are doing other work for the poor than resettling refugees, but my major objections are two-fold. As a non-profit, concerned citizens cannot get to their financial information in the same way one could research and then complain about a government agency that is accountable to elected officials; and secondly, frankly, they are lobbying for causes that you (the taxpayer) may not support. Here LSS opposed Voter ID for example.

All the while they masquerade as charitable Christians.

Like most of these quasi-government agencies, we support (we pay for!) their political activity!

For new readers, see ‘Why so many Somalis in Minnesota’ here. Thank LSS, Catholic Charities, and World Relief! Way back in 2008, a reader told us how Minnesota was a prime target for the stealth Jihad, check it out here.

I just had an amusing (not really amusing) thought—-are these Lutherans from Minnesota from the same stock that is now willy-nilly destroying Sweden. Maybe there is some sort of cultural ‘death wish’ gene?

Swedes express fear about future of their country as government opens the doors to Syrians

09/20/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I saw this story this morning on twitter (thanks to Fjordman). It reports the reaction of Swedes who are willing to tell the truth about what is happening to their country, albeit readers must get through 20 paragraphs or so of blather before getting to the juicy part. Blather about how “welcoming” Sweden is to immigrants, blather about how generous the socialists of Sweden are, and blather about how they are a bit annoyed at the rest of the world (the US, Russia and Israel specifically) because other countries don’t share their generosity toward immigrants.

As I see it, at least we aren’t as stupid as the Swedes, but we are working on it!

See our earlier post when Sweden announced (for Obama’s benefit) that they were letting in any-and-all Syrians who want to come and live there permanently.

My Imaginary Socialist Swede: We’ll destroy our country in the process, but we will show those stingy racist Americans what good people we are!

So about twenty paragraphs into this article, the other shoe drops!

From Digital Journal (emphasis mine);

And here’s where things get a bit sensitive, especially in such an overtly politically correct society as Sweden. Most immigrants, says Scheldt (Gothenburg resident Jonas Scheldt), are “Muslims from harsh backgrounds and traditions.”

“Approximately 10 percent of Sweden today are Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa,” Scheldt continues. “Most of them don’t work. They breed like rabbits. They want special Sharia law. They don’t want music in schools. They’re against homosexuals, abortion, human rights. Some Swedes are becoming afraid of what’s to come in the future.”

Fear for the future of their country. It’s a theme echoed by some of the other Swedes we interviewed.

“Afraid, yes that’s the right word for Swedes,” agrees Weibert.

Fear of increasing crime, which many Swedes blame on the increased immigrant population, is palpable.

“Since we are a socialist country with a ‘humane’ way of thinking, we have been creating problems for ourselves,” argues Weibert. “We have a huge problem right now with segregation and ‘hoods.’

And that’s only because we’ve opened our arms to everybody without having the ability to take care of all the people in the right way. So now we are having problems in Gothenburg with shootings, which take place almost every day now.”

“Crime has gone sky high,” concurs Scheldt. “There were five shootings last week in Gothenburg.”

Such crimes were virtually unheard of a generation ago.

There are other crimes that Swedes blame on immigrants.

“In Malmö the Jews are being persecuted by Muslims because of Israel’s wrongdoing,” adds Scheldt. “Sweden also now has one of the world’s highest rates of rape. When I was young, we didn’t have to lock our doors. Girls are afraid to walk home in the evening. There’s more violence, missing people, trafficking, drugs, killings [and] abuse of the welfare system.”

“Sweden has never been like this before,” Scheldt says. “My 75-year-old father has been knocked down and robbed twice in the past two years. My sister got stabbed.”

Maybe Sweden will wake up in time, but they have such a huge Muslim population now I doubt they can reverse their downward trajectory. But, look on the bright side—as the country dies, watching the death throes might be enough to shake some sense into other Western countries before it’s too late. That is why we write about Sweden so often.

About the photo: You can read about the mosque here at wikipedia. I had planned to use a photo of Muslim immigrants that was published with the original story this morning, but I see it’s gone. Funny how the media is so skittish about showing Muslim faces.

So much for “welcoming the stranger” in the socialist dream land of South Africa

09/20/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dubbed the “Rainbow Nation” by the world’s communist and socialist dreamers, South Africa is anything but a mecca for all people.

They call it “xenophobia” here instead of “racism” because the crimes being perpetrated on Somalis (and vice versa) are black on black crime.

This Time magazine photo is from the 2008 riots. South African blacks’ anger was focused on “refugees” from other African nations.
Photo: Themba Hadebe / AP

Oh, the irony!

From the Global Post:

More than 150 Somali-owned shops have been looted in four days of xenophobic violence in South Africa’s coastal city of Port Elizabeth, police said Wednesday.

“Since Sunday when all the trouble started, 150 shops have been looted and it is spreading to other townships. The situation is still tense,” police spokeswoman colonel Sibongile Soci told AFP.

At least 70 suspects have been arrested in connection with the pillaging and will appear in court this week, she said.

The ransacking of the small shops that sell mainly groceries and popularly know as spazas, was sparked by the killing of a 19-year-old South African boy by a Somali shop owner on Sunday.

It occurred in New Brighton township following an argument over cellphone airtime.

Since then, attacks on the shops spiralled and spread to other townships as locals claim they were avenging the killing.

Amid widespread poverty and unemployment, frustration in South Africa’s run-down neighbourhoods often boils over into anti-immigrant violence. [Remember there was a time when South Africa was the jewel of the continent—ed]

An explosion of deadly attacks in 2008 killed more than 60 people and displaced thousands into refugee-style camps.

The African Centre for Migration and Society, a think tank, says 140 foreigners were killed and 250 seriously injured in the country last year.

[…..]

A Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University social commentator Theodore Petrus said South Africans needed to correct the misconception that foreigners are here to take their jobs and women.

We have written a lot about the “xenophobia” crisis plaguing this increasingly impoverished country. See ‘Rainbow Nation’ here.

Editor’s note: For regular readers, we have posted stories from India, Israel and Australia [update: Sweden] in recent days about migrants and the impact they are having as they arrive illegally in modern capitalist countries looking for asylum, the warning signs should be very clear for America. At some point in time, we will be facing the same problems on a national scale—violence, riots, and political upheaval. We need to get our borders sealed now!